Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos lauded the man-of-the-match performance of Relebohile Mokokeng following the 2-0 victory over Lesotho at the Peter Mokaba.
It was the 20-year-old Mofokeng’s first start for the senior national team and the Orlando Pirates winger scored his maiden international goal when he opening the scoring after 60 minutes.
Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Jayden Adams added the second goal five minutes, which was also his first start and first goal for Bafana.
The victory took South Africa to the top of the 2026 World Cup qualifying group, two points clear of Benin who they face on Tuesday.
Broos said after the game: “You know I can tell nobody they are a regular [in] Bafana Bafana, we are 23, that’s the first thing; secondly I said also before, as a coach you have to see when is the right moment to bring in a player.
“I think this game was the right moment for Rele, he played a very good game and this is what we need, when you put a young guy in the team, as a coach, you have to always think they can succeed.
“If he doesn’t, can you imagine he played a bad game, then everyone would say ‘maybe it’s too soon, maybe he’s not so good’. So you have to help the player with that.
“I think I did that with Rele and I did that today with Jayden too, for me, Jayden also played a very good game – but this was also an opponent to do that. You can’t do that against Nigeria, or maybe for the first time, in Benin because those are different games.”
Broos added: “I have to watch and see when is the right moment and then sometimes they don’t succeed then either – but today you see Rele, he had the confidence from my side and he confirmed it, so I’m very happy with that.”